Girls Want Sex, Boys Want Love: Resisting Dominant Discourses of (Hetero) Sexuality

Abstract

Based on empirical research with 17-19 year olds, this article explores young people's understandings of themselves as sexual in relation to dominant discourse of (hetero)sexuality. It is concerned with providing empirical evidence of resistance in young people's constitution of their sexual subjectivities. The research findings suggest that young people generally draw upon dominant discourses of (hetero)sexuality in their talk about themselves as sexual. However some took up subject positions that involved more resistant conceptions of the sexual self. For some young people this took the form of simultaneously accommodating and resisting subject positions offered by traditional discourses of (hetero)sexuality. It is argued that the potential to take up more resistant subject positions was partly contingent upon young people's location in contexts that offered access to, or opened space for, other ways of constituting themselves as sexual.

Agency in action – young women and their sexual relationships in a private school

“…Similar to Allen (2003), Renold and Ringrose find that ruptures can be swiftly followed by reterritorialisation (often 'of other forms of dominance, differentiation and Otherization '; 2008, 332). The authors also find that the more sustained and multiple ruptures appear to occur mainly within narratives of fantasy -such as about those about imagined futures.…”

“…A notable exception is a more recent paper by Renold and Ringrose, in which the authors use 'Deleuze and Guattari's powerful conceptual repertoire ' (2008, 313) to examine how the actions of girls and young women rupture the heterosexual matrix. In a smaller field of study examining young women's approaches to and experiences within sexual and intimate relationships -theorisations of agency used tend to be either underdeveloped (Jackson and Cram 2003;Stewart 1999) or situated within a framework (Allen 2003(Allen , 2008Holland et al 1998) which focuses on identifying behaviours as either resistant to or accommodating of traditional discourses (Maxwell 2007) or 'dominating forces' (Allen 2008, 575).…”

“…Over the last decade, there has been growing interest in how young women 'manage' their sexual experiences and intimate relationships (Allen 2003;Holland et al 1998;Maxwell 2007). Specifically, some researchers have worked to develop understandings of how young women feel powerful within their sexual relationships and how they articulate their needs and desires.…”

“…Specifically, some researchers have worked to develop understandings of how young women feel powerful within their sexual relationships and how they articulate their needs and desires. Early literature often used the term 'empowerment' (Holland et al 1998), but later work has increasingly engaged with post-structuralist understandings (Allen 2003) to deploy notions of agency and agentic practice. However, the concept of agency has a broader heritage and is variously employed across the spectrum of sociological theory (Barnes 2000;Clegg 2006;McNay 2000McNay , 2008Sewell 1992).…”

‘They think it's all up to the girls’: gender, risk and responsibility for contraception

“…Thus dominant cultural ideas of female sexuality and power relationships make it very difficult for women to negotiate safe sex. However, recent studies have shown that whilst hegemonic ideas of masculinities and femininities exist, and lead to gendered expectations of behaviour (Gevers et al 2012), reality for many young people is more complex (Allen 2003a, 2003b, Maxwell 2007, Devries and Free 2010. Young women express sexual desire, which is not always viewed negatively, and young men express desire for emotional closeness and having someone to talk to (Allen 2004, Forrest 2010.…”